For the fourth time in five years, the World Car of the Year is a Korean product.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the time has finally come: the Car of the Year 2024 has been announced. We hear you thinking: wouldn't that have been the Renault Scenic E-Tech? Correct, then the European Car of the Year was indeed 2024. But we also have the World Car of the Year 2024.
Different conclusion
So it has now been announced. The jury members of the World Car of the Year came to a different conclusion than the all-European jury. The Scenic did not win. In fact, it was not nominated at all, because a car must be sold on at least two continents to qualify for the WCOTY.
Kia EV9
You undoubtedly already recognized it from the header photo: the World Car of the Year 2024 is… the Kia EV9. This marks the third time in a row that a Hyundai Group product wins, after the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 previously won. And in 2020, the Kia Telluride won.
Performance Car
In the Performance Car category, it was also a Korean who won: the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. This EV left the BMW M2 and the Ferrari Purosangue behind, among others. Last year, a Korean car also won in this category: the Kia EV5 GT.
Sponsored?
You would almost think that the World Car of the Year is sponsored by Hyundai. Or maybe the Koreans just make great products, that is also possible. Because let's be honest: Kia and Hyundai are doing very well.
Numbers two and three
For the sake of completeness, we should also mention the BYD Seal and Atto 3 (which count as one car for some reason) and the Volvo EX30. These were the numbers two and three in this year's election. If you own one of these models, know that your car has almost become World Car of the Year 2024.
Unfortunately, Wouter was not allowed to participate in the decision on the World Car of the Year, but you can see what he thinks of the EV9 in the driving test below:
This article The Car of the Year comes from Korea again first appeared on Autoblog.nl.
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